?Reading Moms? give AWWA schools new life

ARMY WIVES? Welfare Association?s (AWWA) novel concept of ?Helping Moms? has been warmly welcomed in all its nursery schools. Wives of Person below Officer Ranks (PBOR) and officers volunteer to assist the teacher once a week as ?Reading Mom?, ?Story Telling Mom? or ?Writing Mom?.

ARMY WIVES’ Welfare Association‘s (AWWA) novel concept of ‘Helping Moms’ has been warmly welcomed in all its nursery schools. Wives of Person below Officer Ranks (PBOR) and officers volunteer to assist the teacher once a week as ‘Reading Mom’, ‘Story Telling Mom’ or ‘Writing Mom’.

Staff Officer AWWA Col AK Parsai says this concept has helped immensely in increased and better interaction of parents with schools. They now have first hand knowledge of how children need to study and are able to help other parents in the family quarters. It also inculcates the spirit of contribution and welfare towards the organisation.

This is part of AWWA’s endeavour to give priority and importance to education in its nursery schools where each child is encouraged to become ‘the best’ and develop as the future ‘creative leader’ of India. To achieve excellence and improve communication skills, each student is encouraged to learn and speak one grammatically correct sentence in English and Hindi each, per week.

This sentence is often the theme of the week and curriculum is suited to enhance it. Children enjoy the easy pace and are able to relate to it more comfortably. Besides the child, the mother too gets an opportunity to learn these languages.

The concept of ‘Helping Moms’ has also received a very encouraging response from wives of PBORs, who take pride in their new roles. Once such a mother has progressed from being a once or twice weekly help, she can think of being a full-time teacher in the AWWA Nursery School, SI Lines, Bhopal.

Power packed musical night
VIBRATIONS AT the Musical Night organised on September 23 at the Defence Services Officers’ Institute (DSOI) was an evening when music spoke with the night, rendering words trivial. Enthusiasm flowed like vintage champagne; the mood was charged with fun and excitement, the audience ravishing and upbeat, music stimulating and delicious eating arrangements.

With each and everyone finally hitting the dance floor, the revelry reached its ultimate high with everyone asking for more. The evening lived up to the reputation of DSOI socials - high energy, exuberance and excellent food.

Did you know?
Potatoes saved Prussia! Sometimes it is not mighty armies or special weapons that decide wars, but rather some humble factor that neither side counted on at the offset. In the case of Prussia in the Seven Years War, it was the potato. Potatoes reached Europe from Peru.

The plant was used as a staple for the peasants who built the fantastic monuments of the pre-Columbian empires. Frederick II of Prussia, while campaigning during the War of the Austrian Succession, saw potatoes for the first time.

He was impressed by the hardiness of the tuber, the small amount of land that was needed to grow a crop and the fact that it was hard to requisition or tax the spud. Whereas, grain was routinely seized by European armies living off the land, potatoes could be left in the ground for long periods of time without the need to harvest them and were routinely missed by foragers.

In 1744 Frederick ordered administrators to distribute free seed and planting instructions to peasants. For a variety of reasons the staple food grew in popularity and was in widespread use throughout Prussia by 1750.

In 1756 Prussia invaded Saxony, triggering what would be a long and bitter war. Prussia’s armies advanced and retreated over and over again as its fortunes surged and ebbed. Prussia itself was invaded several times.

The potato, missed by the invading armies as they requisitioned all other foodstuffs from the Prussian peasants, prevented widespread famine. And in the end, ultimate victory depended as much on the support of the Prussian peasantry for Frederick as it did his army!!